Chinese doctors bow to an 11-year-old boy who chose to donate his organs to save lives after losing a battle to brain cancer

Malignant tumours of the brain are not known to spread outside of the central nervous system and are therefore not a contraindication to organ transplant.

The three most common pediatric brain tumours are: pilocytic astrocytoma (low grade), medulloblastoma (bad), and ependymoma (moderate to bad). This kid most likely had one of the two latter ones but there are many other possibilities. Benign brain tumours can certainly kill too but I would not put my money on that for this kid. I would put my money on medulloblastoma.

Note: this applies to primary brain tumours (tumours that started in the brain); kids can have tumours from elsewhere metastasise to the brain (more common in adults) but that would clearly make them inappropriate for transplant.

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